Agents of change

Sunday

Dec 23, 2012 at 12:01 AM

His name is Pat Kelsey, and he's the head basketball coach at tiny Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C. On Wednesday night, his team had put up a valiant effort in a closer-than-expected, 65-55 loss to Ohio State, one of the country's top 10 teams.

His name is Pat Kelsey, and he's the head basketball coach at tiny Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C. On Wednesday night, his team had put up a valiant effort in a closer-than-expected, 65-55 loss to Ohio State, one of the country's top 10 teams.

Kelsey strode to the microphone to address the media after the game. Everyone was expecting him to talk about jump shots, rebounding and defense.

Instead - well, take a moment to listen to his words:

"I wanna say I'm really, really lucky, 'cause I'm gonna get on an eight-hour bus ride, and I'm gonna arrive in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and I'm gonna walk into my house, and I'm gonna walk upstairs, and I'm gonna walk into two pink rooms, OK, with a 5-year-old and a 4-year-old laying in that pink room, with a bunch of teddy bears laying in that room.

"And I'm gonna give them the biggest hug and the biggest kiss I've ever given them. And there's 20 families in Newtown, Conn., that are walking into a pink room with a bunch of teddy bears with nobody laying in those beds. And it's tragic.

"And I don't know what needs to be done. I'm not smart enough to know what needs to be done, OK? I know this country's got issues. Is it a gun issue? Is it a mental illness issue? Or is it a society that has lost the fact, the understanding, that decent human values are important?

"And our leaders - I didn't vote for President (Barack) Obama. But you know what? He's my president now. He's my leader. I need him to step up. Mr. (John) Boehner, the speaker of the House ... OK, he needs to step up.

"Parents, teachers, rabbis, priests, coaches - everybody needs to step up. This has to be a time for change. And I know this microphone's powerful right now, because we're playing the fourth-best team in the country. I'm not going to have a microphone like this the rest of the year, maybe the rest of my life.

"And I'm going to be an agent of change with the 13 young men I get to coach every day and the two little girls that I get to raise. But hopefully, things start changing, because it's really, really disappointing.

"I'm proud to grow up American. I'm proud to say I'm part of the greatest country ever. And that's got to stay that way. And it'll stay that way if we change. But we gotta change."

Pat Kelsey says he's going to be an "agent of change." And he urges everyone else to be one, too.

The aftermath of the tragedy just over a week ago in Newtown is causing people from all bents - despite politics, race, gender, age, etc. - to talk about change. Positive change.

The real question, though: Will anything truly change this time?

Was there an appreciable - and more importantly, lasting - call for change after:

» 12 died and 58 were injured in the Colorado movie theater shooting earlier this year?

» Seven died and three were injured in a Sikh temple shooting in Wisconsin in August?

» 15 died and six were injured in a post office in Edmond, Okla., in 1986?

» 15 died and 24 were injured at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999?

» And, of course, five died and 31 were injured at Cleveland School in Stockton in 1989?

We could go on and on, but the list would be very lengthy.

How lengthy? According to a report by Mother Jones magazine, there have been 62 mass murders in the United States using guns in the past 30 years (1982-2012). The magazine looked at killings with a lone shooter, in a public place in which at least four people were killed.

Of the 62 mass killings, 49 assailants obtained their guns legally, 12 illegally, and one case is unclear.

In those 62 incidents, in which many of the killers carried multiple weapons, authorities found 68 semiautomatic weapons, 35 assault weapons, 20 revolvers and 19 shotguns.

In well over half of the cases, there were previous indications of mental illness.

The answers to this epidemic of carnage are not crystal clear. The remedies aren't imminent. We're certainly not prepared to spell them out in a single editorial.

But the need for action is obvious.

Kathleen Parker, a syndicated columnist for The Washington Post, notes that what generally happens after a mass shooting is a lot of talk. There's a need for everyone to express their feelings and talk things out.

What's very clear after the 20 children and six adults were massacred at Newtown is that talk must - this time - become action.